Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France's far-right Rassemblement National (National Front) party, has died aged 96, it was announced on Tuesday.

       Mr Le Pen co-founded the far-right party in 1972 and remained at its helm until 2011, when his daughter Marine Le Pen took over the role. The party is now led by Javier Bardella, while Ms Le Pen is its Parliamentary party leader.

       The controversial politician, who was also an MEP for 15 years, took part in the French presidential election five times between 1974 and 2007.

       In 2002, he shook the French political system as he reached the run-off vote against Jacques Chirac, against whom he eventually lost.

       Despite never being elected, Mr Le Pen, born on June 20 1928, helped reshape French politics and made topics such as immigration and employment front and centre in the country.

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       But his anti-immigration rhetoric, attacks on multiculturalism and Holocaust denial convictions have also made him a hugely polarising figure and a pariah in French politics in the 1980s.

       His controversial statements even put him on a collision course with his daughter, who publicly split from her father and expelled him from the party.

       Over the past few years, Ms Le Pen has strived to rebrand her party to make it less divisive and appealing to more voters, while retaining as key topics such as migrants and taxes.

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       Mr Bardella, who in the past had sought to distance himself from the founder of the party he now leads, publicly acknowledged the death of Mr Le Pen on Tuesday, paying tribute to him on social media.

       The French politician wrote on X: "Jean-Marie Le Pen is dead. Enlisted in the uniform of the French army in Indochina and Algeria, tribune of the people in the National Assembly and the European Parliament, he always served France, defended its identity and its sovereignty.

       "Today I am thinking with sadness of his family, his loved ones, and of course of Marine whose mourning must be respected."